News Story

Shopping around

Once upon a time, we’d spend our Saturday mornings carted (or dragged) around the local supermarket by our parents. The weekly shop was something of a ritual and had to be orchestrated meticulously — fruit and veg first, then round to the milk, followed up by the canned goods, and if you were lucky — maybe a chocolate bar at the till.

But now, faced with more shopping options than ever before, our habits are becoming more varied. These habits have been noted by the supermarkets themselves, with Sainsbury’s reporting that the industry has “changed beyond all recognition” with “customers shopping very differently to the way they were shopping even a year ago” (BBC News, 2014).

Little and often has become the mantra of many, with consumers opting to shop around to get the best deals. We’re choosing to mix and match to get the best combination of convenience, value for money and quality. And we’re only able to do this because of the increase in choice — towns and cities are now saturated with variations of mega-super-stores, metros, greengrocers, discount shops and gourmet counters.

This change of habit isn’t just taking place regarding our supermarket shop. Research also suggests that we are a nation of grazers in the office, picking and choosing when we eat and what we eat. We prefer the flexibility that choice gives us, from the way we buy to our approach to mealtimes.

At Eurest, we’ve always got our ear to the ground when it comes to the latest trends in food habits. That’s why we have an insight programme so that we can understand you, and we can deliver you the choices you want. We know that your tastes and preferences are always evolving, so we make sure we’re evolving, too.